Florida State Seminoles head coach Jimbo Fisher celebrates after winning the BCS National Championship game against the Auburn Tigers at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, Calif., on Monday, Jan. 6. FSU won, 34-31. (MCT)

PASADENA, Calif — It was a brilliant send-off for the Bowl Championship Series Monday night. The Florida State Seminoles came from behind twice, including in the final minute, to defeat the Auburn Tigers 34-31 in the national championship.

And, afterward, the BCS was tossed onto the scrap heap with all the other straightened Slinkys when the game clock finally expired some time in the dead of night back on the East Coast.

The BCS was 16 years old at the time of its death, but will be survived by a thing called the College Football Playoff.

This thing is a system to guarantee the Southeastern Conference doesn’t play for a national championship every daggum year from now until rapture. The SEC won the last seven — Florida, LSU, Florida, Alabama, Auburn, Alabama, Alabama — BCS national championships before Monday night’s game.

It was almost eight in a row, but a freshman at FSU not named Jameis Winston gave the Seminoles a late lead with a stunning 100-yard kickoff return for a touchdown. The first FSU hero on this night was Kermit Whitfield, who at 5-7, 178 pounds, was literally the smallest player on FSU’s roster of behemoths and maulers.

The second hero was Winston himself, who orchestrated the game-winning drive. It was a drive of redemption for Winston, who struggled for much of the game after playing so wonderfully all year.

Before the glowing sunset at the Rose Bowl had a chance to fade on the mountains that frame this iconic stadium, it was clear the Seminoles had forgotten how to play football during the four weeks between the conference championship games and the national title.

Or, put another way, FSU wasn’t playing Duke.

Winston, FSU’s redshirt freshman Heisman Trophy winner, was an unstoppable torrent of bravado and talent during the regular season — his ordeal with the Tallahassee state attorney’s office didn’t even seem to faze him — but all that confidence dried up before the biggest game of his life. And then he found it at just the right moment, after Auburn took the lead with 90 seconds to play.

It was Winston’s 20th birthday, and, after playing beyond his years for so many weeks, he looked every bit his age for most of the first half. Heck, Winston was so edgy before the game that he couldn’t even complete a pass during warm-ups.

His passes sailed high and wide one after another like he was just seeing a pass rush for the first time in his career, because, well, he was just seeing a pass rush for the first time in his career. FSU needed a desperation call by coach Jimbo Fisher to keep the game close. The fake punt in the second quarter led to the Noles’ first touchdown of the game and salvaged a horrendous first half for FSU.

But Winston found himself at halftime, and FSU’s defense figured out Auburn’s tricky offense, and, after trailing at halftime for the first time this season, the ‘Noles stormed back to do the BCS puppet masters proud.

But it would be silly for a sportswriter from Florida to complain too much about the BCS. Say what you want about the smoke and mirrors, but the convoluted system by which college football has determined its champion for the past 16 years was very good to the Sunshine State. Between the Seminoles, Hurricanes and Gators, a team from Florida played in the BCS national championship game eight times.

With the late addition of the University of Central Florida to the party, the total number of BCS appearances for state schools now stands at 20.

That’s more than any other state, and it’s not even really that close. California schools were in BCS bowls 12 times. Texas teams played in BCS games eight times.

Much to the chagrin of just about everyone in South Florida, save LeBron James, Ohio State, of course, was the biggest single beneficiary of the BCS. The Buckeyes played in 10 BCS bowl games, but, infamously in Coral Gables, won only one of its three BCS national championship appearances.

We didn’t know it at the time, but that pass interference call in overtime against the Hurricanes was the BCS crystallized in one play. All a sham.

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